Cindy Sangalang, UCLA Luskin assistant professor of social welfare and Asian American studies at UCLA, authored a commentary for Nature on the future direction in research on intergenerational and collective trauma. In the piece, she highlighted key challenges in pushing this area of research forward, “particularly the need to attend to historical and cultural contexts in light of a growing emphasis on biological and epigenetic explanations.” Sangalang noted the hundreds of thousands of people killed in 2024 in international conflicts as well as more than 122 million people who remained displaced by violence and conflict in the first six months of last year — 5.3 million more than in the same period in 2023. “These collective traumas can leave emotional scars that shape the health, relationships and life chances of those who experience them, as well as affecting their children and future generations,” she wrote, explaining, “Understanding these generational effects can help individuals, families and communities to find ways to heal. But trauma studies are plagued by a narrow research focus that is hindering progress.”